Search
AI-powered search, human-powered content.
scroll to top arrow or icon

COVID's impact on education and its long-term geopolitical consequences: Gerald Butts

It's not just kids spending too much time on their screens because they got so used to doing everything remotely during the pandemic.

The impact of COVID-related educational disruption - and the growing inequality gap - could have big geopolitical fallout in the future. Why?

Because with diminished education comes fewer economic opportunities. That will likely exacerbate already deep divisions, says Eurasia Group Vice Chairman Gerald Butts.


As a result, he adds, watch out for more future disrupted politics around the world, both within countries and between countries.

Butts spoke during a Global Stage livestream on September 15, 2022: "Live from the UN General Assembly: Transforming Education"

More from Global Stage

Can we use AI to secure the world's digital future?

How do we ensure AI is safe, available to everyone, and enhancing productivity? It’s a big topic at this year’s UN General Assembly. That’s why GZERO’s Global Stage livestream brought together leading experts at the heart of the action for “Live from the United Nations: Securing our Digital Future,” an event produced in partnership between the Complex Risk Analytics Fund, or CRAF’d, and GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, sponsored by Microsoft.

Is the Europe-US rift leaving us all vulnerable?

As the tense and politically charged 2025 Munich Security Conference draws to a close, GZERO’s Global Stage series presents a conversation about strained relationships between the US and Europe, Ukraine's path ahead, and rising threats in cyberspace.

Mother-son podcasting duo take on quantum computing

Quantum computing is moving closer to real-world applications, but making the technology understandable remains a challenge.

The World Bank Group's Sangbu Kim on AI and job skills

More than half of Americans believe their job is vulnerable to AI. The data tells a more complicated and in some ways more hopeful story.

Can AI protect humanitarian aid?

Artificial intelligence is already helping humanitarian organizations identify people in need, improve supply chains, and deliver assistance more efficiently. But it also introduces new risks.

Yoshua Bengio: AI is moving faster than our ability to govern it

Artificial intelligence is advancing at an extraordinary pace, but are governments and society keeping up? In this interview from the 2026 AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, pioneering AI researcher Yoshua Bengio discusses why today's AI safety debate goes beyond technical questions to broader issues of governance, public understanding, and international cooperation.